Nov. 20, 2018
04:34 pm JST

Nov. 20, 2018
04:56 pm JST

Guilty until proven guilty. Without a shred of evidence yet presented. Sad.

You know, other than the fact that he admitted to the charges already. And the fact that the misreported income can be found on the FSA filings that were submitted by Nissan by Ghosn to the TSX and Securities commission.

Do you guys even know what he did? I highly doubt you do. He isnt guilty until proven guilty, he just plain an simply IS guilty.

Nov. 20, 2018
05:17 pm JST

Nov. 20, 2018
05:53 pm JST

He may have been one of the highest paid people in Japan, but I doubt he was earning the same as his American counterparts. Wouldn’t be surprised if these perks were partly to make up for this.

Why wasn’t his salary being accurately reported in securities filings. This is a huge thing. Hard to believe he masterminded this on his own. More like that his company didn’t want to admit to what they were paying him and orchestrated this little arrangement along with the unreported company perks.

Nov. 20, 2018
06:36 pm JST

All going according to plan.

If this has been going on for years, Nissan's Board or the accouting firm who audits Nissan would have and should have spotted the error long ago. If it was happening for several years, CEO Hiroto Saikawa, the Board, and the Auditor should also be arrested for being complicit in the cover up.

Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa just didn't want the merger, was tired of Ghosn, so here comes a whistleblower, several years too late. With the guilty until certified guilty system, Hiroto Saikawa now gets the spotlight.

Nov. 20, 2018
07:22 pm JST

Nov. 20, 2018
07:50 pm JST

The word on Wall Street here in the States is that he had unreported income of $44 MILLION DOLLARS and purchased four homes on four different continents with company money.Someone supposedly blew the whistle on him from the inside. Whoever blew the whistle just may regret it. Nissan could be in trouble.Everyone there could end up going down for this.

Nov. 20, 2018
07:52 pm JST

This is the story behind the story. What happens to the Renault/Nissan alliance now? And who benefits if Ghosn is no longer in the picture? This is why we shouldn't just take this story at face value. There's something else going on here.

Nov. 20, 2018
08:19 pm JST

I personally is very interested in Carlos Ghosn case as a human being that had lived and worked in Japan for 30 years. As a foreigner that had worked for 25 years as torishima riyaku sacho. I have met with almost the same betrayal by unfair bad Japanese people. Who only thinks of their own benefit. The point here is , who agreeded to pay Carlos his salary ???.Why now , when Carlos is 64 years old ???. Can all good Japanese forgive such bad treatment of a person that saved their Nissan & the lives of all Nissan workers for 20 years ???.

Nov. 20, 2018
08:50 pm JST

Both Nissan and the Japanese govt see him as a threat and an embarrassment, and find the idea that the French people own 42% of a Japanese first-tier company an existential threat. They'd rather die than adapt if it means putting "foreigners" on an even par. The same goes for women.

Nov. 20, 2018
08:55 pm JST

Pukey2:

I have little sympathy, but one question I have is, how many Japanese execs and managers who have been caught doing exactly the same thing have been punished or jailed?

Most of tax evasion cases do not end up in arrest. They were simply asked to pay amount due and penalty. There are exceptions, however. Exceptions are believed due to one of the three categories: (1) exceptionally high amount of unreported income (2) maliciousness of intention (3) high probability of escaping abroad.

I suppose the first one applied to Mr Ghosn's case. It is generally believed that if the amount exceeds one billion yen, you get arrested. According to the report, the amount Mr Ghosn did not report was more than five billion yen.

One famous example involving Japanese executives is Mr Takafumi Horie and his colleague of his company Livedoor. He was arrested in 2006 for the same charge as Mr Ghosn by the same Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office (東京地検特捜部).

Nov. 20, 2018
09:22 pm JST

Ghosn added Mitsubishi to the alliance two years ago after the tiny automaker was caught in a gas-mileage cheating scandal. He had even floated the idea of a full merger between the three companies.

"Today's events throw any prospect of that up in the air," Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London, wrote in a note to investors.

With the arrest of Ghosn, the possibility of the merger of the three above-mentioned companies and the continued alliance between Nissan and Renault are Ghosn with the wind. Ghosn may have been a business wizard but like a lot people who become too powerful and too rich he thought he could do anything. He couldn’t and so screwed up everything.

Nov. 20, 2018
10:18 pm JST

Ghosn will be flat broke when all this is over.

He faces criminal charges as well as civil charges by Nissan and angry Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault stock owners who all will get in line to sign up for class action suit against him for devaluing stock prices of those companies.

Nov. 20, 2018
11:40 pm JST

Nov. 21, 2018
12:08 am JST

Public broadcaster NHK said Nissan paid billions of yen to buy and renovate homes for Ghosn in Rio, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam, citing unnamed sources. The properties had no business purpose and were not listed as benefits in TSE filings, NHK said.

So Nissan bought and renovated properties for Ghosn in various locations.... for Ghosn to be guilty Nissan has to prove that they reported those purchases / improvements to Japanese tax authorities at the time. They need to clearly show that that was a part of compensation in their records versus him not reporting it at all. I don't understand how Nissan can make purchases in his name. When did they deed these properties over to him. Also... why would Nissan blow the whistle on him? If they did everything correctly then no matter when these crimes came to light it still would be Ghosn's crime and not theirs.

Nov. 21, 2018
12:34 am JST

This is case look super fishy. According to the French Economy Minister there is no proof of tax fraud by auto titan Carlos Ghosn in France https://www.france24.com/en/20181120-business-france-carlos-ghosn-no-proof-tax-fraud-carmaker-minister-renault-nissan-japan

So he was avoiding taxes in Japan but not in France? This has hit-job written all over it.

Nov. 21, 2018
01:01 am JST

Both Nissan and the Japanese govt see him as a threat and an embarrassment, and find the idea that the French people own 42% of a Japanese first-tier company an existential threat. They'd rather die than adapt if it means putting "foreigners" on an even par. The same goes for women.

@expat ,spot on.... actually i'm surprised he wasnt taken down a while ago when the Jpanaese got what they wanted out of him. This is classic xenophobia, they certainly do not want a foreigner running a Japanese company... all part of the nationalist agenda and more insularity. The idea of a gaijin having equal rights as japanese is an anathema here.

Nov. 21, 2018
01:07 am JST

I always wondered how he managed to stay in this position for that long, usually the Japanese hate the idea of a foreigner running a blue blooded japanese company, it is obvious they used him to turn things around then stabbed him in the back.. this is why i would never work for a Japanese company, even if you paid me a million bucks.

Nov. 21, 2018
02:49 am JST

Jimi:

I always wondered how he managed to stay in this position for that long...

He has a huge fan base in Japan. Many Japanese, and corporations, respect him. A large number of Japanese publications about him and his management prove that. So this is a big surprise to many Japanese.

If there is one thing that is very difficult for Japanese to feel comfortable is the astronomical wage gap between executives and average workers. The Japanese society will probably never adapt to such a practice.

If you earn hundreds or thousands times more than your fellow employees and if you do not pay tax, then your are inviting a trouble, especially in Japan. (Look at the cases such as Takafumi Horie in 2006 and Kenshiro Kawamoto in 2013.)

Nov. 21, 2018
04:52 am JST

If this is all about not declairing those overseas resort properties as personal income - what about all of the various resorts Japanese companies have? Please don't tell me that I need top go back and declair each use as income. Surely there is much more...

Nov. 21, 2018
05:50 am JST

Foreign coverage of this in sources such as CNN, CNBC, the Guardian, etc. is very different from the comments here. There is a presumption in the articles that Ghosn had been engaged in one or more scams. There has been no mention of alleged Japanese xenophobia.

This CNBC interview with Bob Lutz, former Vice Chairman of GM, describes Ghosn as more than a little arrogant and probably thinking that he was above the law.

Some sources have indicated that French President Macron also wanted to see Ghosn out and that there was covert French cooperation with Japanese authorities. The French government owns 15% of Renault and Chosn's propensity to close factories has not been popular with either the French electorate or the French government.

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